TROOP LEADER
I'll go first.What kind of story
would you like
to hear, one about ghosts, or witches, or
werewolves?

STRANGER(O.S.)How about vampires?I know a wonderful
vampire story.

A tall, pale
STRANGER has stepped out of the shadows.He walks over to the troop.

THIRD KID

Who are you?

STRANGER
Just someone who likes to wander through
the woods at night.I overheard
your
conversation, and thought I would offer my
services as a storyteller.

TROOP LEADER
Well, kids, what do you say we give the man
a chance?

FIRST KID
Okay.

SECOND KID
Might as well.

THIRD KID
Sure.

STRANGER
Listen to my words and let me pull you into
my dreams, my nightmare world of death
and shadows, a world that's waiting just
outside the dark.

EXT.A FIELD--NIGHT

The stranger,
dressed in a black overcoat, walks over a barren field, a wasteland, which
stretches toward a grove of thrashing trees.The sky is covered with scudding gray clouds.

STRANGER(V.O.)One night as I was strolling through a
field, I
spied the moon entrapped within the trees.Black branches tangled 'round the ivory globe.The leaves thrashed as it struggled to be free.

A full moon
appears through the branches of the trees.The wind is whipping the branches into a frenzy.

STRANGER(V.O.)The struggle of the moon was joined by
bats,
who tried to free their goddess from the trees.They hovered in among the grasping limbs,
as squeals of fury echoed in the sky.

Hundreds of bats
soar among the trees.

STRANGER(V.O.)A woman came behind me as I watched,
and
touched her icy fingers to my throat.Her
teeth
were like the color of the moon.Her
lips were
like the color of my blood.

A pale WOMAN walks
up to the stranger.She runs her
fingers through his hair and strokes his neck. Then
she reveals her vampire fangs and sinks them into his neck.Bright red blood seeps out, and he dies.

EXT.GRAVEYARD--NIGHT

Mourners watch as
a coffin is brought nearer and nearer to an open grave.

STRANGER(V.O.)Down, down, they dug my grave....
In darkness there to dwell.
But I burned, I burst and blossomed forth....

EXT.GRAVEYARD--NIGHT

The stranger
appears by his grave.He is now a
vampire.

STRANGER
A vampire born in hell!

EXT.CAMPSITE--NIGHT

The Stranger sits
back, pleased with the story he has told.The
kids aren't pleased at all.

FIRST KID
Is that it?

THIRD KID
That's the worst story I've ever heard!

TROOP LEADER

I think our guest was trying to capture a mood.

SECOND KID

Didn't work.

STRANGER
There's something I didn't tell you about that
story.

SECOND KID
Yeah, you didn't tell us it stunk.

STRANGER
I didn't tell you that it's true.I
am a vampire.

THIRD KID
Right!And I'm a ghoul.

FIRST KID
Yeah, we're all ghouls!

STRANGER

But I am a vampire!!!

The stranger curls
back his lips and reveals a set of deadly fangs!

FIRST KID
And we are ghouls!You know -
ghouls!!!Fiends who eat the flesh of corpses!Get
him, boys!

One of the kids
grabs a sharp stick, while the other boys grab the stranger by the arms and flip
him over onto the stick, which pierces his heart.Blood wells up around the stick and the vampire dies.

TROOP LEADER

Well done, guys.And now, I think
it's time for
dinner.

FADE TO:

EXT.CAMPSITE--NIGHT(LATER)

The kids are
roasting pieces of the stranger over the fire, just like other kids would roast
marshmallows.One has a hand on the
end of his stick, another is roasting a foot.One eats an ear.As they cook their dinner, the Troop Leader joins them in a
campfire song, sung to the tune of "I've Been Working On The
Railroad."

KIDS & TROOP
LEADER(singing)Oh, I've been eating flesh of corpses,
All the live long night!
I've been eating flesh of corpses,
Just to ease my appetite!

I think I'll eat a bowl of brains,
Let's open up his head!

We love to eat the flesh of corpses,
Because they taste so dead!

FADE TO:

EXT.HILLSIDE TRAIL (ON THE SCREEN)--DAY

We rejoin Hacking
Harry.

HACKING HARRY
Those boys have hearty appetites!They
like
to eat hearts!Join me hear at that
this URL
for another story guaranteed to make you 'url,
here at On-Line 'Orrors!

The
author grants all internet uses to print these scripts for their own,
personal, non-commercial use. No other use may be made without the
author's permission. Without limiting the
foregoing, the plays may not be staged without the author's express
permission.